‘Sutra” delivers, but not what it promises. Though visually stunning, the fast-paced, hourlong show — part of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival of spiritual performances — tries to be the Dalai Lama but winds

up more Dr. Seuss.

In Buddhism, sutras are the sermons and teachings of its founder. The piece named after them is more physical theater and gymnastics than dance. It’s the brainchild of Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, a tall, thin, wispy-haired, rubber-limbed man who stars along with a score of Chinese Shaolin monks. As in kung fu movies, they’re expert martial artists.

The music isn’t Eastern, but a Western string quintet that plays live, visible as shadows behind a scrim.

What plot there is vaguely recalls a myth or a fable, but the show is heavier on winsome atmosphere and theatrical effects. Cherkaoui begins onstage, having a wordless conversation with a child monk; their enigmatic encounters with the adult monks form the story.

We think of monks as contemplative and silent, but these guys are combat warriors mixed with acrobats, and do showy kung fu tumbling runs, kicking into the air and crashing to the floor.

The designs upstage even the amazing gymnastics. Antony Gormley’s austere but ingenious set of coffin-like boxes turns out to be anything but morbid. The boxes get turned by the monks into countless configurations, concealing and revealing them and even tumbling like dominos — with the monks inside them.

The visuals and pacing of “Sutra” are top-notch, but Cherkaoui has a mime’s pat sensibilities. He puts himself in a role that’s part Buster Keaton, part Marcel Marceau. With a Mini-Me child monk also front and center, you know you’re in for cloying sentimentality.

Never mind what the White Light Festival promises: This piece, at least, is more Cirque du Soleil entertaining than spiritually profound.